Police lose murdered witness appeal

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At the High Court last year, the parents of optician Giles Van Colle, 25, won £50,000 in damages from Hertfordshire Constabulary over the death of their son.

The force later appealed against the decision, but three senior judges in London on Tuesday rejected its challenge on the issue of liability - but reduced the damages sum to £25,000.

Mr Van Colle was shot three times at close range in north west London in November 2000 - a few days before former employee Daniel Brougham stood trial for theft and after a number of instances of escalating intimidation.

The police accepted disciplinary tribunal findings that the officer in charge of the case - Detective Constable David Ridley - had "failed to perform his duties conscientiously and diligently".

However, the force denied liability and refused to accept that there had been a breach of the human rights of Mr Van Colle or his family.

But Mrs Justice Cox, sitting at the High Court in London, ruled in March 2006 that the police had acted unlawfully, in violation of Article 2 and Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, by failing to discharge their positive obligation to protect Mr Van Colle's life.

She said that if Mr Van Colle had been placed in temporary safe accommodation pending the trial, it was "very unlikely" that the murder would have taken place.